N.L. wants natural gas by 2030

The provincial Liberal government relased its plan for the oil and gas sector Monday morning. - Ashley Fitzpatrick

Government releases plan for oil and gas sector

The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador wants to see natural gas in production off the province’s coast by 2030 in addition to doubling oil production.

The goal was stated publicly this morning (Monday), as part of the release of The Way Forward on Oil and Gas — a broad planning document from the province’s Liberal government.

In order to push for development of oil and gas finds, the government will work to have a separate natural gas development plan in place within five years, by 2022.

To date, natural gas finds in the province’s offshore have been determined not to be financially viable for commercial production by operating oil companies, whether brought to shore by vessel or pipeline.

Companies do make use of some offshore gas in their offshore operations off Newfoundland and Labrador, but not for commercial production and sale.

The government, meanwhile, also wants to speed up the period from offshore discovery to development, to less than 10 years.

To drive the change, government is continuing digitization of records for easier reference and transmission, promoting greater onshore-to-offshore connections and looking to “modernize” regulatory regimes.